209. The Lady From Shanghai (1948)

Directed By Orson Welles

Synopsis

Hell, just watch it. It is much more difficult to explain than actually see it... yes it is one of those.

Review

This is a really great film, with that deft touch by Welles which makes it even better. This film has suffered from a lot of criticism, but the things that people have criticised the film for are actually some of my favourite things about it. It has, for example, been said that the style is too wordy, but I love a good Welles monologue, it was criticized at the time for having made Rita Hayworth cut and dye her hair, I think it definitely suits her character. It was criticised for being too flashy and therefore distracting from the overly complex plot, I think it enhances it.

Actually I think the problem with those criticisms is a chronological one, the film is actually surprisingly modern and therefore has loads of stuff happening in the background, the plot is disjointed and demands a bit of you, it is a bit more like Memento than any film of the 40's with a kind of surreal quality of not getting exactly what's going on, neither the viewer or the main character until the very end.

Welles makes a great job writing it, it is just a joy to get his monologues which of course don't sound natural, but sound great... only Welles doesn't sound so great with his put on Irish accent heh, it is quite funny really. And then there's the final scene with the mirrors. Great film.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

How the film came about from Wikipedia:

In the summer of 1946, Welles was directing a musical stage version of Around the World in Eighty Days, with a comedic and ironic rewriting of the Jules Verne novel by Welles, incidental music and songs by Cole Porter, and production by Mike Todd, who would later produce the successful film version with David Niven.

When Todd pulled out from the lavish and expensive production, Welles supported the finances himself. When he ran out of money at one point, he urgently needed $55,000 to release some costumes which were being held, he convinced Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn to send him the money to continue the show, and in exchange Welles promised to write, produce, direct and star in a film for Cohn for no further fee. On the spur of the moment he suggested the film be based on the book a girl in the theatre boxoffice happened to be reading at the time he was calling Cohn, which Welles had never read.

Mirror room: